We are so much more than what we look like or own.

1 Timothy 2:9-10 Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments, ¹⁰ but rather by means of good works, as is proper for women making a claim to godliness.

Application: So, is our Lord against all this dressing up we do? Realize Paul identifies women here, but in this day and age it would have to include men. We men, spend as much time chiseling our bodies, spending as much money buying our clothes, and jewelry, not to mention our “big boy toys” as women do. In an effort to balance every verse with ALL of the Word of God, we glean from many other passages that You Lord are cool with us enjoying the niceties of this world as we are blessed with them. Even Ecclesiastes makes that point direct and clear. The issue in this verse seems to be two-fold, FOCUS and PROJECTION. Jesus warns us several times not to spend our focus of time on these things as the obsession to have them can become evil. He did not say they were evil. Admittedly any of us can become over focused on getting and collecting these things, which then becomes a problem. The way to find balance, He emphasizes, is to seek God first and allow Him to bless you with all these things. The other issue is the matter of projection. Too many of us spend more time trying to project ourselves to the world from the external things in our life. Our beauty and worth are only surface because we allow ourselves to be duped into listening to what the world calls valuable. We allow the pressure of the world’s view to dictate how we see ourselves. Before you know it we are the emperor parading through town stark naked claiming that our new clothes are spectacular. 

The Holy Spirit and the Word of God is like the little boy in that story, shedding the light of truth on the situation, exposing us to the embarrassing reality. What we convinced ourselves to believe how we looked was really a façade. So it is when we try to build our reality around the outward things in this life. True beauty comes from within. Worth has so much to do with what we are, not what we look like or own. For the most part our “looks” are nothing we made happen. We may help ourselves look better, or even pay someone to make us look better – but our height, body type, hair, eye color, facial features were given to us by the One Who designed us. Too many take credit for what You have done Lord, even when it comes to talent. Someone that is 6’8” may need to work on skills, but the fact is You equipped them to play basketball, they had nothing to do with their height. Yes, we need to develop our natural talents, but the raw material is from You. Our personalities and behavior however, have very much to do with our active participation. We can choose to be kind; we cannot choose to be 6’8”! Father, lead us into developing the real worth, the person inside us. Let us continue to train and practice those abilities and talents we were born with, but help us to see that what is inside us is so much more valuable than the externals that fade with age.

Meditation Questions: What makes you feel valuable, worthy or useful? What does that say? When you evaluate what you think of someone, what are the issues you consider? What percentage of that is external? What does that show you about yourself? When God looks at us, what does He look at? What does that show you? How much time do you spend on taking care of the external things in your life? How much time do you reflect on what you are inside? What does that show you?